Is The Age Of The Bath Down The Drain?

It would be a safe assumption to make that more people take showers than baths these days. Baths are reserved for the times when we are unwell, need to de-stress, relax and simply have the time.

Not a lot of people would consider waking up in the morning, turning on the emersion, waiting for the water to heat up, running a bath and having a half an hour soak every day.

This is why more and more people are choosing not to include a bath when designing a new bathroom in their home, instead choosing a larger, more modern, stand-alone shower.

Easy access showers offer more of a ‘wet-room’ feel to a bathroom and a free-standing shower screen can be a focal point of the overall bathroom design.

A ‘wet room’ is a waterproof room where the room itself is the shower enclosure and the drain is inset in the floor.

This means there would be no thick, plastic shower tray or showering over a bath with a mixer shower, standing on slippy floor or bumpy shower mat.

Aside from the look of a ‘wet room’, people are deciding to veto the option of including a bath in their bathroom for a number of reasons.

Cost of water

As water bills rise further, people are really beginning to see the cost of how much water they are using. Many people have decided to install water meters to control the amount of water they use and pay for. Baths do require a lot of water, although some studies have shown that power showers use twice as much water as the average bath.

Installation

It’s not only the price of water that people are factoring into their bath/no bath decision. Obviously, it’s cheaper just to purchase a shower as opposed to a shower and a bath and, if you don’t have a bath, there will be no cost to install and plumb in the bath – cutting another cost.

Environmentally friendly

Baths are seen to be a lot more wasteful than showers. However, it is recommended that you only spend 4 minutes in the shower, as this amount of time benefits the environment, your heating bills and your water bills.

Quick

People are in such a rush (especially in the mornings), that they opt for a shower because it is a lot quicker. A shower is immediate and you can be in and out within a minute (if you’re really quick). A lot of people have simply got into the habit of having a shower, so they keep doing it. People jump into the shower without even considering having a bath. Which is perhaps why we are seeing fewer and fewer.